Mark Christie of Mullingar made a winning return to the road racing scene with an emphatic victory at the AXA Raheny 5, held in wet but calm conditions last Sunday.
It meant that fast times were possible and Christie, looking fresh and relaxed after a training stint abroad, pushed the pace from the start. Keeping in close touch were twice previous winner Sean Connolly and his Tallaght team mate Tom Fitzpatrick.
Christie quickly opened a gap and came home in 23 minutes 29 seconds – just six seconds slower than Joe Sweeney’s winning time last year. For a second year, Connolly finished second. Fitzpatrick was third, closely followed by Kilkenny athlete Brian Maher, Ed McGinley of Annadale Striders and Clonliffe’s Sergiu Ciobanu.
With Andrew Agnew in seventh place and David Morwood first over 40, Annadale Striders took the team prize ahead of the host club Raheny Shamrock. Best performance on the day for Raheny came from Kevin Dooney, first junior in a personal best time of 24 mins 42 secs.
Second of the masters and first over 45 was American mountain runner Francis Burdett, who was on holiday in Ireland.
DSD’s Linda Byrne made a winning return to racing when she won the women’s race in 26 minutes 23 seconds, In the battle for second place, Teresa McGloin of Finn Valley just edged out Julie Turley of North Down, with the pair given the same time, although Turley’s chip time was faster. Skerries athlete Ciara Durkan finished fourth ahead of Fiona Roche, who was leading Raheny to team victory. Raheny also scored in the junior and masters categories with Alice Fenning first junior and Orla Gormley first over 45.
A record total of 2,053 finished the senior race, with another hundred or so in the children’s 800m and mile. That it all ran smoothly is entirely due to the hard work of the Raheny Shamrock club and the backing they get from sponsor AXA, the local community and clubs such as Raheny GAA. Take a bow everyone!
In Dungarvan, Sean Hehir of Rathfarnham WSAF and Maria McCambridge of Letterkenny both had good pay days when they set course records on their way to victory in the John Treacy 10-mile road race. McCambridge’s time of 55 mins 58 secs knocked half a minute off the old record, while Hehir, crossing the line in 49.24, was just one second inside the previous record.
FOUR DSD TEAMS FOR EUROPE
Olympics-bound marathon runner Linda Byrne leads the Dundrum South Dublin women’s team at Sunday’s European Clubs Cross-Country Championships Castellon Spain, with high hopes of sneaking a medal. After their clean sweep of the men and women’s senior and junior title at last year’s national cross-country championships, DSD had teams in all four races. Joining Byrne on the women’s senior team are Hazel Murphy and Aoife Byrne. Siofra Cleirigh Buttner and Claire Mc Carthy lead a strong junior women’s squad, while the senior men’s team is led by national champion and includes Alan Mc Cormack and the ageless Peter Matthews.
COGHLAN JOINS SUB-4-MIN CLUB
John Coghlan is Ireland’s latest sub-4 minute miler after running 3:59.3 to finish third at the Terriers Invitational indoor meet in Boston. He is the 40th Irish athlete to join this exclusive club; the first was Ronnie Delany at Santry in 1958.
John and dad Eamonn are the first father/son combination to run under the four-minute barrier. Coghlan senior ran 3:49.77 indoors in 1983 – then a world record.
Winning the race in a personal best time of 3:55.75 was West Waterford’s David McCarthy who is at college in Providence, Rhode Island. The Waterford man is back in top form – a week earlier, he won the 3,000m at the Sheatock Invitational in Boston in a meet record time of 7:56.76.
John Coghlan is in the USA with a DCU team that runs the Collegiate Relay at the new-look Millrose Games on February 11.
RAS REMEMBERS LARRY
Ras na hEireann on February 12 at Oldbridge, Drogheda (11.45am) is renamed the Larry Mc Guill Coca Cola Rás na hÉireann in honour of the race’s late founder Larry McGuill who died last year. This year’s programme includes a Special Olympics category race and 3km fun run, as well as the traditional juvenile races and international men and women’s races, featuring a strong US team, Polish, Finnish and Irish athletes. Many of these will also run the Armagh International Road Race on Thursday February 9.
UPCOMING RACES
A few races for the diary: On Saturday February 25, Belfield is the venue for the Ras UCD, with a t-shirt and goodie bag for the first 500 to sign up. Entry is €20 (€15 students) at www.ucd.ie/rasucd/en. All race profits go to the UCD Volunteers Overseas charity. Families have a special invitation to run this year’s Kleinwort Benson Investors St Patrick’s Festival 5km from Dublin’s Dawson Street on Sunday, March 18 (12.0). Online entry €20 or €30 for families at www.patricksrun.com.
No comments yet.